China: They found two graves with strange murals of …

A team of builders discovered two tombs with strange murals, dating back to 1800 years, when performing excavation tasks in the modern city of Dezhou in eastern China. According to the published images, the ancient structures are made of bricks and painted in rare designs that have caught the attention of archaeologists.

By the characteristics specialists think they belong to a family influential, whose members could be both officials and aristocrats of the Han dynasty (20-225 AD).

“We dug up and there were colorful paintings on the bricks. We felt like we could have found an ancient grave,” said Sun, the site supervisor. The discovery forced workers to immediately stop the project and notify local authorities. of discovery.

Representatives from the Shandong Provincial Institute of Archeology and Cultural Relics were present at the site and confirmed that there were in fact two graves. As they clarified, one of the structures is 20 meters long and 6 meters wide, while the other is a bit smaller, 16 meters by four meters.

Another of the researchers’ findings concerns the fact that the graves belonged to the same family. They are based on the fact that they were built next to each other and facing in the same direction.

“These are representative examples of the Dezhou region and very rare,” Zhao Fangchao, of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, told local press. And pointed out that the find was of vital importance for understanding “the burial method, history and funeral customs of Dezhou and even all of Shandong“.

Archaeologists have also unearthed a variety of clay burial pieces at the site, including miniature buildings, bowls, cups and chicken figurines. In addition, they ordered the excavation to continue to carry out a more in-depth analysis of the site.

Painted patterns

Beyond the structures themselves, what archaeologists amazed were the patterns painted on the brick walls in red, black, white and blue. For restorer Han Yingxun, the paint was extracted from natural resources, such as cinnabar, a powdered mineral that produces a red pigment.

Yingxun also explained that the patterns, including geometric lines and lines of fish and plants, were apparently in fashion and reflected the aesthetics of people nearly two millennia ago.